The increasing deployment of intermittent renewable energy sources, including photovoltaic and wind power in particular, gives rise to new challenges for the electricity grid.
Electricity prices are frequently close to zero or negative, and more flexible electricity consumers are therefore needed to stabilise the grid. This is exactly where power-to-heat (P2H) systems can help, and simultaneously substitute the use of fossil fuels.
ERK has pending patents that are based on a combination of electric heating and the combustion of gaseous, liquid or solid fuels.
WORKING FLUIDS
| The benefits of combining these technologies are manifold. They include the use of only one boiler instead of two separate units, no thermal expansion constraints during rapid start-up, as the system is always warm, and also the parallel use of electric heating and conventional firing, depending on the electricity price. The concept not only enables operators of fossil fuel-fired process heat units to lower their carbon emission intensity, but also to create additional revenues by participating in the electricity balancing market. |
